56o 



NA TURE 



[April i6, 1896 



to collect them, to capture them as models, and to draw 

 their pictures. Notwithstanding these facilities, which, 

 however, could only be enjoyed at off-times, the mono- 

 tonous drudgery of farming became at length unbearable 

 to the nascent artist, and he at length secured his father's 

 consent to desert the plough, and to become an appren- 

 tice to the brothers Becker, a firm of lithographers at 

 Coblentz. At the age of sixteen, therefore, Wolf managed 

 to struggle out of agriculture into a profession which had, 

 at all events, an artistic character about it, and a good 

 knowledge of which must have been of paramount value 

 to him in after-life. 



-A Family Group of the Eastern Red-footed Hobby 



His apprenticeship being over. Wolf's second step in 

 life was still more decidedly in advance. As he passed 

 through Frankfort in search of work, his sketch-book at 

 once attracted the notice of Riippell, the distinguished 

 traveller and naturahst, to whom he had been advised to 

 show it. Riippell sent him on to Kaup, the director of 

 the museum at Darmstadt, where the young artist 

 ultimately settled. At the same time, Riippell engaged 

 Wolf to prepare the plates for his " Systematische 

 Uebersicht der Vogel Nord-Ost-Afrikas," upon which he 

 was then engaged. The fifty figures of this volume, 

 published in 1845, were the first hthographs of this sort 



NO. I 38 I, VOL. 53] 



that Wolf ever produced. They are a little rough in 

 execution, but no one can doubt their truthfulness and 

 artistic merit. The receipt of this book in England 

 quickly attracted the attention of our zoologists, who at 

 once understood that an artist had come into existence 

 who could figure birds in a way hitherto almost undreamt 

 of, and very different from .Spix's "Aves Brasihenses," 

 or even the best designs of Temminck's " Planches 

 Colorees." 



On visiting Leyden shortly afterwards, Kaup showed 

 the young artist's portfolio of sketches to Schlegel, and 

 Schlegel, who was then engaged on his " Traite de 

 Fauconnerie," immediately se- 

 cured Wolfs services for that 

 work, to which he contributed 

 eleven or twelve excellent plates. 

 But after a few years at Darm- 

 stadt, Wolf came to the conclu- 

 sion that there would be a better 

 market for his artistic talent in 

 England, where several natu- 

 ralists of the day required his 

 services. The late G. R. Gray, 

 of the British Museum, was 

 then engaged on " The Genera 

 of Birds," which Mitchell had 

 undertaken toillustrate but could 

 not find time to cornplete. On 

 W^olf's arrival in London, Gray 

 at once set him to work on the 

 plates of this folio work, in the 

 Insect Room at the British 

 Museum. The Proceedings and 

 Transactions of the Zoological 

 Society were, at this period, also 

 much in want of a good artist 

 , for their better illustration. For 

 the Proceedings, commencing in 

 1848, Wolf drew figures of a 

 large number of mammals and 

 birds, of which we have a list 

 given to us in the appendix to 

 the present work. Wolf con- 

 tinued to supply the illustrations 

 of mammals and birds required 

 for the Proceedings, and the 

 greater number of those of 

 birds wanted for The Ibis for 

 about twenty years. After this 

 our artist grew rather tired of 

 the minute and technical details 

 required for scientific bird-struc- 

 ture, and it became difficult to 

 persuade him to undertake such 

 subjects except on special occa- 

 sions, when a new parrot was 

 discovered, or a rare antelope 

 brought home from Africa, of 

 which the artist was assured 

 that no one else could make 

 a proper picture. 



Among Wolf's drawings in 

 The Ibis will be found some of the very best ex- 

 amples of his excellent handicraft. Hawks and falcons 

 were always favourite subjects of his pencil, and the 

 family group of the Eastern Red-footed Hobby {Ery- 

 thropus amurensis), (Fig. i.) which we are enabled to repro- 

 duce here through the favour of the publishers of the 

 present work, is one of the prettiest of them. Not less 

 attractive is the elegant figure of the Guatemalan Swift 

 clinging to its rocky home (p. 8), while its pendent 

 nests and flying companions are shown in the background. 

 Mammals have also been always equally within the range 

 of Wolf's able pencil, and not even Mr. Stacy Marks 



